Jess bounded out the home and in to the village, taking a deep breath before hoping down and in to the morning rush of people who were making their way to various places all over the forest. Jess had a number of chores to do today and if they had remembered correctly, Beth was totally off today, so they would be able to hang out later if Jess finished their chores early.

All Jess needed to do today was help with hauling some lumber for a construction project that was going on in the southern village, helping one of the village elders with moving some of their furniture, and tending to the central shrine’s garden. Most of them wouldn’t take too long on their own, but all of them were on completely opposite ends of the forest and far from Jess’s home. Jess sighed at their mother who had opted not to live within the great spirit tree in the central village because she said that the space that had been constructed inside could serve others better than her.

Jess stretched out and tried to figure out the best choice to go with first. The south village was closest to the central village and the village elder that they were helping was in the west village which was the farthest from all of the villages as well as being on the complete opposite side of the island from them in the east village.

“I guess I might as well go help the elder now since he’s the farthest away. Then I can go help with the lumber in the south village and then make my way up to the central village. I hope it isn’t too crowded there, so I can get some meditation in…”

Jess then took off down the road, making their way along the route. By foot, it was about an hour to the west village, so Jess had a bit of time to simply be alone with their thoughts. Usually, on this kind of trip, they would ask Beth to come along, but it was barely ten on Beth’s off day. Jess knew that she was still fast asleep and probably would be until the middle of the day. Luckily, they had timed it out, so they would be finished with the lumber in the south village around an hour after Beth was probably waking up, so Jess would hopefully be able to pop in on her then and ask about hanging out.

Before Jess knew it, they had arrived at the west village. Everyone eagerly greeted them eagerly and wished them an early birthday. They made their way to the elder’s house who was a little surprised. He had assumed that Jess would be arriving a bit later in the day, but he was happy to see them, nonetheless.

“You know, I was quite surprised when I saw that you were the one who had accepted the job, considering how far away your village is from here,” he said with a chuckle.

Jess smiled and motioned for the man to move out of the doorway so that they could squeeze the bookshelf through. “I don’t mind at all. I like getting in extra exercise when I can and the route between here and my house is one of the best for that. Plus, I like to help out the other elders. My mum always told me I should be respectful to you guys and she’s right. You guys are always so nice to us workers.”

The man smiled. “When you get to my age, you start to realize that if you don’t fill the world with more good will, you probably shouldn’t be in it anymore.”

“That’s an interesting philosophy,” Jess replied, setting the bookshelf down. “Alright, is that everything?”

The elder nodded. “Thank you so much for your assistance, Jessica. Can I get you anything to eat or drink?”

Jess thought for a moment before asking, “Do you have any scrap metal or anything laying around?”

The elder gave them a slightly confused look before heading off in to another room, coming back with a small box filled with screws and other small loose pieces of metal. “This is all I have. Why?”

Jess took the box and immediately began to eat some of the screws, much to the shock and confusion of the elder. “I love metal. It tastes soooo good. Mum replaced all of our silverware with wood since I kinda kept eating ours and she got really sick of replacing it. As if I don’t have impulse control now…”

The elder simply nodded and Jess headed off, now with a stomach full of random metal. The trip to the south village was somewhat of a blur. Jess helped move a few hundred logs of lumber for a small enclosure the village had commissioned for housing a strange new creature that had been found in the woods near the town. After that, they went to Beth’s house, but her parents told Jess that she had left for the central shrine half an hour ago looking for them.

With that, Jess left and half an hour later, they were in the central village. Jess was always taken back by just how busy it was in the central village, but thankfully, when they entered the central shrine, they found it totally empty. Jess had always loved the central shrine, it was so beautiful to them, something they didn’t think very often about anything.

The shrine was located just underneath of the center section of the great spirit tree that made up the entire forest of the island. The swirling branches were all around, light green dots glowing all over them. The floor was made of four grass rings divided by roots that had been forced to form circles around the altar in the center of the room. The altar was empty at the moment, but people frequently left offerings on it to honor the great spirit tree. Along the walls, there were eight gardens encased in spirit tree branches, each one with a different variety of mystical plants inside of it.

Jess began to make their way around to check on all the plants, making sure all of them were being properly taken care of, watering and adjusting any that weren’t looking right. People would filter in from time to time to pray at the altar or simply take in some of the energy of the shrine. After about an hour, Jess had finished with tending to all of the plants, so they made their way to the middle ring of the room, sitting down just in front of the altar and closing their eyes.

They began to take deep breaths, clearing their mind and eventually slipping in to a state of meditation. Their chest began to softly glow green as their mind was filling with the energy of the forest. They liked to meditate here because they could feel the energy of the entire forest all in one place, allowing them to reach a deep state of meditation which they often used to help with self-reflection. There were a lot of things on their mind that they were hoping to try and filter through a bit at the moment.

However, they could feel something strange tugging at the back of their mind as they meditated. It wasn’t like anything they’d ever felt before and Jess hadn’t felt it the last time that they’d been here only a few weeks ago. It was an unsettling presence, like the kind they usually felt when there was increased Ser beast activity in the forest, but this wasn’t quite the same. Against their better judgement, Jess focused on the strange feeling, allowing it to practically engulf their sense, hitting them with a deep sense of unease. Then, they felt a hand creep on to their shoulder. Their eyes shot open and they whipped around, only to be met with the face of their best friend.

“Hey, Jessie!”